Breaking News — Third Confirmed Case of Ebola in Dallas, Texas, Airborne Ebola Spreading Through Tiny Aerosolized Droplets in Sneezes and Coughs — Time To Send Ebola Patients to A Biosafety Level 4 Safety Hospitals with A Total of 19 Beds — Videos

Story 1: Breaking News — Third Confirmed Case of Ebola in Dallas, Texas, Airborne Ebola Spreading Through Tiny Aerosolized Droplets in Sneezes and Coughs — Time To Send Ebola Patients to A Biosafety Level 4 Safety Hospitals with A Total of 19 Beds — Videos

“We shall not grow wiser before we learn that much that we have done was very foolish.”

Friedrich August von Hayek

Obama Calls for CDC ‘SWAT’ Team for Ebola Virus

Response Team to Be Sent for Any Ebola Case: Obama

Experts: Ebola Could Go Airborne, Kill Millions

Expert Doctor says CDC is lying about Ebola virus

Ebola strain appears to be different

Second Health Care Worker Tests Positive For Ebola In Texas

Dallas Mayor: ‘It May Get Worse Before it Gets Better’

Texas officials confirm second healthcare worker has Ebola

CDC: Ebola patient flew on plane before diagnosis

CDC Set To Slow Large Ebola Outbreak by Placing Doctors At Risk

BioContainment Unit at The Nebraska Medical Center

USAMRIID The US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease

USAMRIID Overview

Activation- A Nebraska Medical Center Biocontainment Unit Story

US Army: Ebola like FLU needs Winter Weather to go AIRBORNE

Max Alert! EBOLA Bodily Fluids Readily Airborne Weaponizable

Aerosolizing ONE DROP of EBOLA = 1/2 MILLION DEAD

Ebola – The Truth About the Outbreak (Documentary)

Why Do Viruses Kill

MicroKillers: Super Flu

The Influenza Pandemic of 1918

We Heard the Bells: The Influenza of 1918 (full documentary)

In 1918-1919, the worst flu in recorded history killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide. The U.S. death toll was 675,000 – five times the number of U.S. soldiers killed in World War I. Where did the 1918 flu come from? Why was it so lethal? What did we learn?

RED ALERT: TOP GENERAL WARNS EBOLA WILL NOT STAY IN WEST AFRICA!!!!

Dallas Mayor: ‘It May Get Worse Before it Gets Better’

“There are two things that I harken back to this. The only way that we are going to beat this is person by person, moment by moment, detail by detail. We have those protocols in place, the city and county, working closely with the CDC and the hospital. The second is we want to minimize rumors and maximize facts. We want to deal with facts, not fear. And I continue to believe that while Dallas is anxious about this and with this news this morning, the anxiety level goes up a level, we are not fearful and I’m pleased and proud of the citizens that I talk to day in and day out knowing that there is hope if we take care and do what is right in these details. It may get worse before it gets better. But it will get better.”

The comments were given at a news conference in Dallas this morning announcing that another hospital worker in Dallas has been diagnosed with Ebola.

Nurses’ Union: Ebola Patient Left In Open Area Of ER For Hours

A Liberian Ebola patient was left in an open area of a Dallas emergency room for hours, and nurses treating him worked without proper protective gear and faced constantly changing protocols, according to a statement released by the nation’s largest nurses’ union.

Among those nurses was Nina Pham, 26, who has been hospitalized since Friday after catching Ebola while caring for Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with the virus in the U.S. He died last week.

Public-health authorities announced Wednesday that a second Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital health care worker had tested positive for Ebola, raising more questions about whether American hospitals and their staffs are adequately prepared to contain the virus.

The CDC has said some breach of protocol probably sickened Pham, but National Nurses United contends the protocols were either non-existent or changed constantly after Duncan arrived in the emergency room by ambulance on Sept. 28.

Medical records provided to The Associated Press by Duncan’s family show that Pham helped care for him throughout his hospital stay, including the day he arrived in intensive care with diarrhea, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, and the day before he died.

When Pham’s mother learned she was caring for Duncan, she tried to reassure her that she would be safe.

Duncan’s medical records make numerous mentions of protective gear worn by hospital staff, and Pham herself notes wearing the gear in visits to Duncan’s room. But there is no indication in the records of her first encounter with Duncan, on Sept. 29, that Pham donned any protective gear.

Deborah Burger of National Nurses United, who convened a conference call with reporters to relay what she said were concerns of nurses at the hospital, said they were forced to use medical tape to secure openings in their flimsy garments and worried that their necks and heads were exposed as they cared for Duncan.

RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of Nurses United, said the statement came from “several” and “a few” nurses, but she refused repeated inquiries to state how many. She said the organization had vetted the claims, and that the nurses cited were in a position to know what had occurred at the hospital. She did not specify whether they were among the nurses caring for Duncan.

The nurses allege that his lab samples were allowed to travel through the hospital’s pneumatic tubes, possibly risking contaminating of the specimen-delivery system. They also said that hazardous waste was allowed to pile up to the ceiling.

Wendell Watson, a Presbyterian spokesman, did not respond to specific claims by the nurses but said the hospital has not received similar complaints.

“Patient and employee safety is our greatest priority, and we take compliance very seriously,” he said in a statement. He said the hospital would “review and respond to any concerns raised by our nurses and all employees.”

The nurses’ statement said they had to “interact with Mr. Duncan with whatever protective equipment was available,” even as he produced “a lot of contagious fluids.” Duncan’s medical records underscore that concern. They also say nurses treating Duncan were also caring for other patients in the hospital and that, in the face of constantly shifting guidelines, they were allowed to follow whichever ones they chose.

When Ebola was suspected but unconfirmed, a doctor wrote that use of disposable shoe covers should also be considered. At that point, by all protocols, shoe covers should have been mandatory to prevent anyone from tracking contagious body fluids around the hospital.

A few days later, however, entries in the hospital charts suggest that protection was improving.

The Presbyterian nurses are not represented by Nurses United or any other union. DeMoro and Burger said the nurses claimed they had been warned by the hospital not to speak to reporters or they would be fired.

The AP has attempted since last week to contact dozens of individuals involved in Duncan’s care. Those who responded to reporters’ inquiries have so far been unwilling to speak.

David R. Wright, deputy regional administrator for the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which monitors patient safety and has the authority to withhold federal funding, said his agency is going to want to get all of the information the nurses provided.

“We can’t talk about whether we’re going to investigate or not, but we’d be interested in hearing that information,” he said.

CDC officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Duncan first sought care at the hospital’s ER late on Sept. 25 and was sent home the next morning. He was rushed by ambulance back to the hospital on Sept. 28. Unlike his first visit, mention of his recent arrival from Liberia immediately roused suspicion of an Ebola risk, records show.

The CDC said 76 staff members at the hospital could have been exposed to Duncan after his second ER visit. Another 48 people who may have had contact with him before he was isolated are being monitored. Pham remained hospitalized Tuesday in good condition and said in a statement that she was doing well.

The Rev. Jim Khoi, pastor at Our Lady of Fatima Church in Fort Worth, which Pham’s family attends, said the 2010 Texas Christian University nursing school graduate appeared to be in good spirits when she spoke to her mother via video chat.

CDC: Ebola Patient Traveled By Air With “Low-Grade” Fever

The CDC has announced that the second healthcare worker diagnosed with Ebola — now identified as Amber Joy Vinson of Dallas — traveled by air Oct. 13, with a low-grade fever, a day before she showed up at the hospital reporting symptoms.

The CDC is now reaching out to all passengers who flew on Frontier Airlines flight 1143 Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth. The flight landed at 8:16 p.m. CT.

All 132 passengers on the flight are being asked to call 1 800-CDC INFO (1 800 232-4636). Public health professionals will begin interviewing passengers about the flight Wednesday afternoon.

“Although she (Vinson) did not report any symptoms and she did not meet the fever threshold of 100.4, she did report at that time she took her temperature and found it to be 99.5,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden. Her temperature coupled with the fact that she had been exposed to the virus should have prevented her from getting on the plane, he said. “I don’t think that changes the level of risk of people around her. She did not vomit, she was not bleeding, so the level of risk of people around her would be extremely low.”

Vinson first reported a fever to the hospital on Tuesday (Oct. 14) and was isolated within 90 minutes, according to officials. She did not exhibit symptoms while on the Monday flight, according to crew members. However, the CDC says passenger notification is needed as an “extra level of safety” due to the proximity in time between the flight and the first reported symptoms.

“Those who have exposures to Ebola, she should not have traveled on a commercial airline,” said Dr. Frieden. “The CDC guidance in this setting outlines the need for controlled movement. That can include a charter plane; that can include a car; but it does not include public transport. We will from this moment forward ensure that no other individual who is being monitored for exposure undergoes travel in any way other than controlled movement.”

Frieden specifically noted that the remaining 75 healthcare workers who treated Thomas Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital will not be allowed to fly. The CDC will work with local and state officials to accomplish this.

Frontier Airlines is working closely with the CDC to identify and notify all passengers on the flight. The airline also says the plane has been thoroughly cleaned and was removed from service following CDC notification early Wednesday morning.

However, according to Flighttracker, the plane was used for five additional flights on Tuesday before it was removed from service. Those flights include a return flight to Cleveland, Cleveland to Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport (FLL), FLL to Cleveland, Cleveland to Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), and ATL to Cleveland.

While in Ohio, Vinson visited relatives, who are employees at Kent State University. The university is now asking Vinson’s three relatives stay off campus and self-monitor per CDC protocol for the next 21 days out of an “abundance of caution.”

“It’s important to note that the patient was not on the Kent State campus,” said Kent State President Beverly Warren. “She stayed with her family at their home in Summit County and did not step foot on our campus. We want to assure our university community that we are taking this information seriously, taking steps to communicate what we know,” said Dr. Angela DeJulius, director of University Health Services at Kent State.

Vinson is a Kent State graduate. She received degrees from there in 2006 and 2008.

Cleveland’s Public Health Director, Toinette Parrilla, said Vinson was visiting in preparation for her wedding. While there, she visited her mother and her fiance.

The latest Ebola diagnosis was announced by the Texas Department of State Health Services early Wednesday morning.

Vinson is the second worker at Presbyterian Hospital to be diagnosed after providing health care to Duncan, the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States. He died last week.

Medical records provided to The Associated Press by Thomas Eric Duncan’s family show Amber Joy Vinson was actively engaged in caring for Duncan in the days before his death. The records show she inserted catheters, drew blood, and dealt with Duncan’s body fluids.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings addressed the media on Wednesday, saying the patient lives alone and has no pets.

“It may get worse before it gets better,” Rawlings said, “but it will get better.”

Crews worked to decontaminate the common areas of Vinson’s Dallas apartment building Tuesday morning. The apartment unit will be decontaminated by contractors starting early Wednesday afternoon.

The CDC announced that Vinson will be transported to Emory Hospital in Atlanta for further treatment. Two previous American Ebola patients, Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, were treated at Emory and were the first Ebola patients to be treated in the United States. They were released in August.

Nina Pham was diagnosed with the virus over the weekend and remains isolated in good condition. Pham’s dog — a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Bentley — has been taken into custody and is being cared for at an undisclosed location.

Frontier Airlines released the following statement:

“At approximately 1:00 a.m. MT on October 15, Frontier was notified by the CDC that a customer traveling on Frontier Airlines flight 1143 Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth on Oct. 13 has since tested positive for the Ebola virus. The flight landed in Dallas/Fort Worth at 8:16 p.m. local and remained overnight at the airport having completed its flying for the day at which point the aircraft received a thorough cleaning per our normal procedures which is consistent with CDC guidelines prior to returning to service the next day. It was also cleaned again in Cleveland last night. Previously the customer had traveled from Dallas Fort Worth to Cleveland on Frontier flight 1142 on October 10.

Customer exhibited no symptoms or sign of illness while on flight 1143, according to the crew. Frontier responded immediately upon notification from the CDC by removing the aircraft from service and is working closely with CDC to identify and contact customers who may traveled on flight 1143.

Customers who may have traveled on either flight should contact CDC at 1 800 CDC-INFO.

The safety and security of our customers and employees is our primary concern. Frontier will continue to work closely with CDC and other governmental agencies to ensure proper protocols and procedures are being followed.”

Frontier jet made 5 flights before taken out of service in Ebola scare

The Frontier Airlines jet that carried a Dallas healthcare worker diagnosed with Ebola made five additional flights after her trip before it was taken out of service, according to a flight-monitoring website.

Denver-based Frontier said in a statement that it grounded the plane immediately after the carrier was notified late Tuesday night by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about the Ebola patient.

Ebola patient flew day before symptoms surfaced
Amber Joy Vinson of Dallas, traveled by air on Oct. 13, the day before she first reported symptoms.
Flight 1143, on which the woman flew from Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth, was the last trip of the day Monday for the Airbus A320. But Tuesday morning the plane was flown back to Cleveland and then to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., back to Cleveland and then to Atlanta and finally back to Cleveland again, according to Daniel Baker, chief executive of the flight-monitoring site Flightaware.com.

He said his data did not include any passenger manifests, so he could not tell how many total passengers flew on the plane Tuesday.

The airline said it is working with the CDC to contact all 132 passengers on the Monday flight that carried the Ebola patient.

Frontier could not be reached to confirm the FlightAware data, and it was unclear if passengers on the additional flights were being contacted.

The passenger “exhibited no symptoms or sign of illness while on Flight 1143, according to the crew,” Frontier said.
The plane went through a routine but “thorough” cleaning Monday night, Frontier said. Airline industry experts said routine overnight cleaning includes wiping down tray tables, vacuuming carpet and disinfecting restrooms.

The healthcare worker also had flown to Cleveland from Dallas three days earlier on Frontier Flight 1142, the airline reported.

In response to the news that another Ebola patient flew on a commercial flight, the union that represents 60,000 flight attendants on 19 airlines is asking the CDC to monitor and care for the four flight attendants who were on flight from Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth.

cComments
whats it going to take to close the border to people from africa? 10 dead? 100 dead? 1000 dead? we know obumma doesnt give a flying fluke about the american citizens, but isn’t there someone in the government with an ounce of brains? or is this part of obumma’s scheme to declare martial law?…

The Assn. of Flight Attendants “will continue to press that crew members are regularly monitored and provided with any additional resources that may be required,” the group said.

The Ebola scare prompted the union last week to call for better measures to protect flight attendants from exposure to the deadly virus.

The group’s international president, Sara Nelson, suggested that flight attendants are being asked to do too much in the fight against Ebola.
“We are not, however, professional healthcare providers and our members have neither the extensive training nor the specialized personal protective equipment required for handling an Ebola patient,” she said in a statement.

Earlier this month, United Airlines was rushing to contact passengers who flew on two flights that carried a Liberian man infected with Ebola from Brussels to Washington, D.C., and then to Dallas.

The Ebola-stricken healthcare worker who flew on Frontier had been treating the Liberian man, Thomas Eric Duncan, who has since died.

Airline-industry stock prices have taken a beating in recent weeks, with some analysts blaming the Ebola scare.
On Wednesday, stocks of Delta Air Lines and American Airlines fell more than 6% in early trading before partially recovering. With less than 90 minutes remaining in the regular trading session, the two stocks were each down about 2% from Tuesday’s closes. Frontier is privately held.

There are only 19 level 4 bio-containment beds in the whole of the United States…and four in the UK

Liz Bennett

The UK is well set for an Ebola outbreak (sarcasm alert) We have TWO isolation units, but one is getting ‘redeveloped’ so it’s not available right now. Called High Security Infectious Diseases Units there are two in the country, each capable of taking two patients. One is at The Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead North London, the other, the one getting a bit of a make-over, is at The Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle, up in the north-east of England.

Four level 4 bio-containment beds between 69,000,000 people

In the US there are 4 units geared up to handle Ebola. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, has 3 beds. Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, has 10 beds. Emory Hospital, Atlanta has 3 beds and St Patricks Hospital, Missoula has 3 beds (source)

19 level four biocontainment beds for 317,000,000 people

I think we just found out why the government(s) are under-playing the situation. They simply do not have the facilities to cope with even a small outbreak. They are, in fact in exactly the same position as the dirt-poor hospitals in West Africa…there are not enough facilities to stop the spread of the disease if it gets out. The quality of care is better, but the availability of containment most likely isn’t.

I am sure ‘regular’ isolation units will be pressed into use but they are not designed to handle level 4 biohazards, they are nowhere near as secure medically speaking, as biocontainment units.

A couple of days ago I explained how exponential spread works. You can read that article here if you like. As a quick recap. Once a disease is at the point where every carrier infects 2 more people,(exponential spread) it will continue until it:

A) runs out of hosts

B) is stopped by medical science or

C) mutates into something less harmful.

What follows will show you how woefully inadequately our governments have prepared for something as lethal as Ebola.

In the flu pandemic of 1918-1920 28% of Americans were infected with the disease…try to remember I am talking numbers here not HOW disease spreads or any medical similarities between diseases, 625,000 Americans lost their lives out of some 29,400,000 infections. The population of the United States at that time was 105,000,000 people. (source)

Fast forward to today. If that flu pandemic had hit the United States in 2014, when the population stands at 317,000,000 people 88,760,000 people would have been infected and 2,130,240 of them would have died.

Now, let’s try this with Ebola. I have picked Liberia just because it is in the news due to the Thomas Duncan case.

Liberia has a population of 4,290,000 people, as of the latest figures there have been 3692 cases of Ebola, this represents 0.0086% of the population.Of those infections, 1998 people have died that’s a fatality rate of 54%. (source)

If that same infection and death rate were applied to the United States Ebola would infect 269,000 people and of those 156,281 would die.

Now, if as doctors and scientists fear the basic reproduction rate rises to 2 in Liberia the numbers change very quickly. Using the mean average incubation time of 9 days it would take around 13 weeks for the entire population of Liberia to become infected. (10 doublings starting with 3692 = just under the population of Liberia. This multiplied by 9 days gives us 90 days which divided by 7 gives 12.85 weeks.) Of the 4,290,000 people infected 2,316,000 would lose their lives.

This is just Liberia, not the other affected countries in West Africa.

Translated to an equivalent outbreak in the United States, where the basic reproduction rate is also 2, the numbers are horrifying. Starting with patient zero it would take around 245 days, 35 weeks for every person in the United States to become infected. Of those 17,118,000 people would die. (27.17 doublings x 9 days = 245 days =35 weeks)

Please remember the figures for Liberia are pulled from the CDC website, the percentages are correct.

United States was based on exactly the same parameters as for Liberia…a like for like comparison.

The CDC could be spending their time educating people, advising people to stock up, get ready for the possibility of staying in their homes. Self imposed isolation, or if need be state imposed isolation, that may last for an extended time period may become a reality. They’re not doing it though are they? They are sprouting figures and applying them to West Africa, and they can’t even get that right. They are saying that there could be 1.4 deaths in West Africa in a worst case scenario. When actually applying the figures they supplied with some simple mathematics we can see that 1.4 million deaths is a gross understatement.

Even a basic reproduction rate of 1.7, the latest figure for Liberia it will only take around 30 weeks to get to the same point as the above scenario, over 2,000,000 dead.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that the UK government is any better, if anything they are worse, they don’t even try to do the maths. Most of them went to Eton (a very expensive school that churns out politicians) so it’s unlikely they would be capable of it even if they wanted to. You only have to look at our national finances to see they are no good at sums. They send out press briefings that there will be an emergency COBRA meeting, do you have any clue what that stands for? Let me enlighten you, Cabinet Office Briefing Room A. COBRA is not an emergency planning group, it’s an effing office.

Although I am loathed to say it, it’s time that our governments started worrying about the facilities at home rather than worrying about the facilities abroad. Stopping the disease in Africa does not mean we are out of the woods. There are so many unreported cases, people turned away from medica facilities in West Africa that nobody has the slightest idea how many cases of Ebola are actually out there. The porous borders of the region mean that people move around without the controls that are usually exercised in the west. There has to be a travel ban on non-US citizens entering the United States from these areas, the same applies from the UK.

Border control has to be improved in both countries if we have any hope of halting the spread of this terrible disease. The west is going to be the destination for anyone from Ebola hit areas that can afford to make their way from Africa. Many West Africans have contacts in the west who will help them get out, and shelter them when they arrive. As harsh as it seems this has to be stopped, it’s time for governments to put their own citizens first. Repatriation of your own is one thing, risking millions of lives at home because you won’t man up and prevent foreigners entering is quite another.

The Ebola Outbreak in West Africa

Samuel Aranda for The New York Times

Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have been struggling since March to stop what has become the largest Ebola outbreak ever recorded. The disease is causing widespread fear and disruption in West Africa, and shows no signs of being brought under control.

CHRONOLOGY OF COVERAGE

OCT. 15, 2014

Spain’s ad hoc, improvisational response to citizens infected by Ebola virus and brought back to the country underscores holes in West’s readiness to confront wider outbreak; cases of Ebola in Spain have raised urgent questions about risks of disease spreading even in developed countries, particularly among health care workers. MORE

OCT. 15, 2014

Doctors Without Borders criticizes lack of reliable evacuation systems from West Africa, saying that more would volunteer to fight Ebola in region if it were not so difficult to leave in case of emergency; cites fact that it took 50 hours to evacuate French nurse to Paris after she tested positive for virus. MORE

OCT. 15, 2014

Bellevue Hospital is designated as center for treatment of the Ebola virus should it emerge in New York City; announcement comes amid widespread concerns that disease may not be so easily contained by every hospital that has an isolation unit. MORE

OCT. 15, 2014

World Health Organization warns new cases of Ebola virus could reach 10,000 a week in West Africa by December, nearly 10 times the current rate; reports none of the three most heavily affected countries, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, are adequately prepared for epidemic; comments come in report before the United Nations Security Council, which voices fear that epidemic could renew the risk of political instability in a region barely recovering from civil war.MORE

OCT. 15, 2014

Dr Thomas R Frieden, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director, acknowledges for first time that quicker and more concerted action on agency’s part might have kept Dallas nurse from contracting Ebola virus; says agency plans a more robust response to any future Ebola cases in American hospitals. MORE

OCT. 15, 2014

Frank Bruni Op-Ed column contends other, more common ailments deserve more concern and attention in United States than Ebola; points out influenza kills between 3,000 and 50,000 Americans per year, and skin cancer kills 10,000 per year; lists other common, and much-researched, illnesses that Americans should vaccinate and protect themselves against. MORE

OCT. 15, 2014

Jere Longman On Soccer column examines plight of SIerra Leone’s national soccer team, caught amid self-destructive feud between nation’s soccer federation and sports ministry; observes that team was already exhausted from playing road-only games due to Ebola outbreak. MORE

OCT. 14, 2014

Transmission of Ebola virus to Dallas nurse Nina Pham forces Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to reconsider its approach to containing the disease; state and federal officials are re-examining whether equipment and procedures are adequate or too loosely followed, and whether more decontamination steps are necessary when health workers leave isolation units. MORE

OCT. 14, 2014

Experience of Emory University Hospital in Atlanta in caring for three Ebola patients calls into question oft repeated assurances from federal health officials that most American hospitals can safely treat disease; transmission of virus to Dallas nurse Nina Pham has also raised questions about general level of preparedness in hospitals around the country; medical experts have begun to suggest it may be better to transfer patients to designated centers with expertise in treating Ebola. MORE

OCT. 14, 2014

Public health concerns about Ebola virus have spread to both political parties, which are engaged in finger-pointing debate that could jar midterm elections; Republicans blame the Obama administration for failing to protect the United States, and Democrats are saying it is GOP budget cutting that has put Americans at risk. MORE

OCT. 14, 2014

Experts rule out notion that Ebola virus has become a super-pathogen and raise doubts that it will evolve into one; say virus is not fundamentally different from those in previous outbreaks dating back to 1976, and it is highly unlikely that natural selection will give it ability to spread more easily, particularly by becoming airborne. MORE

OCT. 14, 2014

Friends of Dallas nurse Nina Pham describe the 26-year-old, part of the team that treated Thomas Eric Duncan, as conscientious and caring, and from a very private family. MORE

OCT. 14, 2014

Editorial warns effort to combat the Ebola virus in Western Africa is lagging dangerously behind; contends the international community must dramatically step up aid if epidemic is to be controlled; holds obligation is particularly strong for the United Sates as it faces first case of patient who contracted the virus domestically. MORE

OCT. 14, 2014

Sierra Leone’s national soccer team is enduring a series of demeaning and discouraging indignities since outbreak of Ebola in West Africa; team is barred from playing in its own stricken country and it must play every match on the road as it struggles to qualify for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, continent’s biennial championship. MORE

OCT. 14, 2014

World Bank president Dr Jim Yong Kim, frustrated with slow global response to Ebola outbreak, has made fighting epidemic his mission, driving bank to act on Ebola with uncharacteristic speed; bank has committed $400 million to fighting disease. MORE

OCT. 13, 2014

The topic everyone on Wall Street is discussing urgently but quietly isn’t the volatile stock market. It is Ebola. MORE

OCT. 13, 2014

News that a nurse at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital has contracted Ebola virus transforms part of Dallas into scene of concern and contamination; residents in victim’s neighborhood are filled with anxiety, while hazardous-materials crews scramble to clean her apartment building. MORE

OCT. 13, 2014

Nurse at Texas Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas becomes first person to contract Ebola within United States; development prompts local, state and federal officials to scramble to determine how she became infected, despite wearing protective gear, and to monitor others potentially at risk; news further stokes fears among health care workers across country. MORE

OCT. 13, 2014

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say agency will take new steps to help hospital workers protect themselves, providing more training and urging hospitals to practice dealing with potential Ebola patients. MORE

OCT. 13, 2014

Op-Ed article by Prof Siddhartha Mukherjee contends Ebola case of Thomas Eric Duncan in Dallas shows that medical community must rethink concept of quarantine, in light of the absence of any established anti-viral treatment; calls for development of pilot program for rapid-testing quarantine. MORE

OCT. 12, 2014

Liberian Army has suddenly become linchpin in fight against Ebola virus rampaging the country; for decades, Liberians viewed the armed forces with fear due to atrocities committed during civil war. MORE

OCT. 11, 2014

Doctors Without Borders, first to respond to Ebola crisis in West Africa, remains primary international medical aid group battling disease there; strained and overworked charity has erected six treatment centers in West Africa, with plans for more, and has treated the majority of patients, just as they have in previous Ebola outbreaks and some other epidemics in the developing world. MORE

OCT. 10, 2014

Health workers at International Medical Corps treatment center in Liberia face dilemma of how to care for newborn whose mother may have died of Ebola; many health workers have contracted Ebola while attending to births and being exposed to blood and other body fluids, provoking fears of providing maternity care; doctors speculate that Ebola can be transmitted from mother to baby (Series: The Ebola Ward). MORE

OCT. 10, 2014

Britain says it will introduce measures at airports and rail terminals to screen passengers from affected countries as concerns over Ebola grow in Europe. MORE

OCT. 10, 2014

Presidents of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, nations most affected by the Ebola outbreak, implore world leaders to increase their support to fight the disease; speak at meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Washington. MORE

OCT. 10, 2014

Nebraska Biocontainment Patient Care Unit in Omaha, with arrival of two Ebola patients in last six weeks, is at forefront of the nation’s response to the disease; unit’s 10 beds sat empty for years. MORE

OCT. 10, 2014

Dallas officials say Sgt Michael Monnig, local shefiff’s deputy examined for possible infection with Ebola virus, has tested negative and is sent home from hospital; many in city remain uneasy. MORE

OCT. 9, 2014

Thomas Eric Duncan dies of Ebola in Dallas, renewing questions about whether delay in receiving treatment could have played a role in his death and what role it played in the possibility of his spreading the disease to others; it remains unclear why, and how, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital did not initially view the Liberian man as a potential Ebola case; nearly 50 people who came into contact with Duncan when he was experiencing active symptoms are being monitored. MORE

OCT. 9, 2014

Federal health officials will require temperature checks for the first time at five major American airports for people arriving from three West African countries hardest hit by Ebola epidemic; however, health experts say measures are more likely to calm worried public than to prevent people with Ebola from entering country; move comes after death of Thomas Eric Duncan, Liberian man who was the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States. MORE

OCT. 9, 2014

Bellevue Hospital Center in Manhattan shows off its isolation rooms and its leave-no-skin-cell-uncovered precautions in an attempt to reassure New Yorkers that should the Ebola virus arrive in the city, its premier public hospital could handle it. MORE

OCT. 9, 2014

European leaders are scrambling to upgrade their response to Ebola crisis after Pres Obama’s announcement that he will send 3,000 troops to West Africa to build hospitals and otherwise help in fight against the disease. MORE

OCT. 9, 2014

Spanish health officials explain how auxiliary nurse Maria Teresa Romero Ramos became the first Ebola case in Western Europe, saying that it was likely she became infected when she touched her face with the gloves she had worn while tending to a Spanish missionary with Ebola at a Madrid hospital. MORE

OCT. 9, 2014

Dog named Excalibur who belonged to Ebola-infected nurse Maria Teresa Romero Ramos is destroyed by Spanish health officials, even as protesters and animal rights activists surround Madrid home of the nurse and her husband; online petition calling for dog’s life to be spared drew hundreds of thousands of signatures. MORE

OCT. 9, 2014

Editorial notes new screening procedures directed at travelers entering United States from Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone, center of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa; holds screenings, while burdensome and possibly of little practical value, may ease public anxieties about keeping virus out of country and assure people that risks are being minimized. MORE

OCT. 8, 2014

Schedule for a single day at newly opened Ebola treatment center in Suakoko, Liberia, run by International Medical Corps charity, offers portrait of efforts to halt spread of virus; center is both ordinary and otherwordly, where health workers tend to those infected and those quarantined while awaiting test results (Series: The Ebola Ward).MORE

OCT. 8, 2014

Spain’s government comes under heavy criticism for its handling of Western Europe’s first Ebola case, as health care workers argue that they have not been given proper training or equipment to handle the disease; government quarantines three more people and monitors dozens who had come into contact with infected nurse. MORE

OCT. 8, 2014

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scrambles to address concerns from health workers nationwide as anxiety mounts over Ebola virus; agency has scheduled two nationwide conference calls, but has so far not changed its recommendations on protective gear.MORE

OCT. 8, 2014

Doctors report first positive signs in recovery of Thomas Eric Duncan, Liberian man battling Ebola virus in Dallas hospital; Duncan’s temperature and blood pressure have normalized, though he remains on a ventilator and is still receiving kidney dialysis. MORE

OCT. 8, 2014

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials promise additional measures to screen airline passengers arriving in United States for Ebola virus; remain opposed to draconian travel restrictions such as outright bans, saying that they would cause more problems than they would solve. MORE

OCT. 7, 2014

Nurse in Spain becomes first health worker to be infected with Ebola virus outside West Africa, raising serious concerns about how prepared Western nations are to safely treat people with the deadly illness; nurse contracted the illness while treating a Spanish missionary who was infected in Sierra Leone and flown to Madrid, where he died; infection exposes weak spots in Spain’s highly praised health care defense systems. MORE

OCT. 7, 2014

Adel Faqih, Saudi Arabia’s acting health minister, says this year’s hajj has been free of Ebola and other contagious diseases like Middle East Respiratory Syndrome because of measures taken to protect more than two million Muslim pilgrims. MORE

OCT. 7, 2014

Pres Obama says screening for Ebola virus at airports both in the United States and West Africa will increase, but does not offer specifics; Dallas residents remain on edge as they await to learn if those who came into contact with Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan became infected. MORE